Lesson outline the may 4th movement

Lesson outline the may 4th movement

• 2.
  Origins  Parallels andconnections to 1898 reforms  Warlord Era, Japan’s 21 Demands  Treaty of Versailles - Shandong  New intelligentsia: 5 million educated in West  Beijing University (Peita) founded 1898 – promoted free expression  New Youth magazine started 1915: edited by Chen Duxiu – attacked Confucianism  Literary Revolution: attacks on traditional language led by Hu Shi
• 3.
  Q1  The May 4th Movement can best be described as a reaction against foreign involvement in China? B) True C) False
• 4.
  Chen Duxiu
• 5.
  May 4, 1919 3000 student demonstrators at Gate of Heavenly Peace against Versailles Treaty, Japanese demands and general state of China  Cabinet minister’s house burned  Manifesto declared: “China’s territory may be conquered, but it cannot be given away. The Chinese people may be massacred, but they will not surrender…”
• 6.
  4 May 1919,Beijing  The May 4th Incident  House burned  Former Chinese envoy to Japan beaten with iron bed legs  So heavily bruised his body looked like “it was covered in fish scales” –Rana Mitter
• 7.
  Movement Spreads May-June 1919  Mass demonstrations throughout China  Warlord cabinet resigns  Students joined by the press and the middle class  Sun Yatsen supported protest (but was ambivalent about movement as a whole)  Japanese goods boycotted  Schools closed
• 8.
  Intellectual Revolution  Explosion of new magazines  Attacks on Confucianism  Western ideas promoted  Marxism promoted – New Youth spring 1919 edition (CCP founded 1921)  Women’s rights (Ding Ling),  Workers rights, trade union activity  Peasant rights and education  New educational ideas  New literature, vernacular – Lu Xun
• 9.
  Lu Xun-author of“The True Story of Ah Q” “Our vaunted Chinese civilization is only a feast of human flesh prepared for the high and mighty”
• 10.
  Intellectual Conflict Hu Shi: PROBLEMS Beware of isms, simple solutions to complex problems. Solve problems one at a time without revolution but with PRAGMATISM Vs Li Dazhao: ISMS Solve problems with a complete and thorough socio- political transformation – revolution - MARXISM
• 11.
  Li Dazhao
• 12.
  CCP Founded  BeijingUniversity converts: Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Mao Zedong  Comintern agent Voitinsky set up study groups  July 1921: First Congress of CCP in Shanghai  Organized labour centres, workers’ schools, strikes  Chinese Seamen’s Union strike: union recognition, increased pay
• 13.
  Key Features  Nationwide student demonstrations against the Versailles Treaty and Japan  Criticism of China’s past – attacks on “Confucius and Sons” – look to the West for solutions – “keep young while growing old”  New intelligentsia – five million by 1919 – Western schools  Peking (Beijing) National University – founded 1898 – leading scholars: Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Hu Shi  Chen Duxiu’s New Youth magazine – attacks Confucianism – promotes social Darwinism  Language Reform – rejection of classical Chinese – phonetic form of written characters  Literary Revolution – Hu Shi – “Overthrow the painted and powdered literature of the aristocratic few” – plain, simple expression – literature of the people  Marxism – Bolshevik Revolution in Russia – promoted in special edition of New Youth May 1919 – ‘My Marxist Views’ (Li Dazhao)  Rejected by Hu Shi – more study of problems, less talk of “isms” – argued for pragmatism of John Dewey  Lu Xun – China dying of suffocation – China as a cannibalistic society due to Confucianism etc
• 14.
  Recap  Direct connectionsto 1898 Reforms e.g.: Beijing University  New Culture movement related but different to May 4th  New Culture focused on literature and culture less than politics  May 4th Movement an example of ‘Unstable Pluralism’, e.g.: Weimar Germany  Foreign models popular e.g.: Edison, Ghandi,Marie Curie, Ataturk and Marx